In the beginning, knowing he was the best-looking luminous immortal ever made, Gabriel would stride among his adoring fans. His tall stature, golden hair, and glorious façade would draw others to him and his warm voice, would hold them enthralled, like watching embers dance in a fire. The crowd would hang on his every word, everyone listened to him. Despite this influence Gabriel’s only desire was to be adored because the gleam of so many eyes on him made Gabriel glorious.
Even strong and silent Mykal loved him and the beautiful Morning
Star Lucie could not outshine his voice. Instead she would whisper praise and
adoration in his ear. Gabriel accepted the adulation as his due. So that when the
Morning Star suggested they go on a quest to the Master’s Estate, Gabriel
agreed without thinking and when she told him he was to be the First Messenger,
he believed her implicitly.
Returning from that quest, Gabriel was held in awe because his
voice was now the voice of the Unmoved Master. He spoke and the luminous
population got to work.
His new status raised him high, to the top of a pedestal, to
the heights of a mountain. But being so
elevated, removed Gabriel from his adoring fans, who were now busy doing
everything he had instructed them to do. But the more he saw the more he feared
his influence, and he wondered if he’d done the right thing.
Walking among the crowds, he still felt their gleaming awe but
whereas before he had only desired it, now he needed their glow to fill the
shadow at his centre.
He tried to speak to Lucie, but she was busy co-ordinating the
Stars and he realised that away from others Lucie never listened to what he
said. Mykal was a much better listener, but he wasn’t much of a talker and had
stoically accepted his new role as Defender and was busy, organising troops.
Alone atop his mountain, Molly finds him.
“Where have you been?” he asks.
“Helping establish the Never-Ending Office, as you
instructed oh glorious one,” she says, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms.
“Have you made up with Lucie?” asks Gabriel.
“What?”
“She said you were mean to her. That’s why you didn’t come
to help with the Red Tape.”
“And of course, you believed her,” says Molly, her light
flaring with her voice. “You didn’t think to ask me?”
“She’s the Morning Star,” says Gabriel with a shrug. “And your best friend.”
“And you believed her about that,” says Molly, but this time
her light narrows onto Gabriel. “I thought, just maybe, you’d see through her,
that you were different. But you’re just like everyone else.” Her words
illuminate the shadow at Gabriel’s centre, the ones he’s tried to ignore.
Gabriel
rises above Molly, saying “I’m not like everyone else,” and spreading his wings,
declares. “I am Glorious,” and he flies
off to the sanctuary of his adoring fans, away from Molly’s penetrating gaze.
